Patrick Collison: "You shouldn't compete in markets you can't win." (opens in new tab)

Exactly so.

I also read that statement as being functionally equivalent to "if you aren't already successfully in the space, then there's no point in bothering". That's the exact opposite of what we need for a healthy economy.

I think what he's referring to is the notion that all companies want monopolies. Peter Thiel talks a lot about this. So if you can't have a monopoly, and you're in a business where everyone is lowering the prices etc, it's not ideal.

I think "winning" here refers to success in money, power, etc. However society generally defines it!

In my humble opinion, it doesn't matter if you're in the game for long if you don't even matter.

Alrigth but the tldr is that he's looking for markets where domination is a possibility, so that's my takeaway anyways! :)